Nadia advanced down the dark tunnel heading further into the depths of the temple, curious as to what possessed the commander to come this far. As she moved forward, she felt the slow chill of fear creeping up her spine.

On an alien planet with magic, and now there’s a super creepy underground temple, and undead are apparently a thing here… screw it. Before her thoughts could completely run away, she switched to the Heavy Battle Suit along with the Ironclaw Brawlers, feeling a surge of endurance and strength as the boost to Physique took effect.

She’d been advancing steadily down the tunnel for nearly 300m when it branched. Through her HUD, she could see that the trail she’d been following took the leftmost fork. I hope you knew where you were going John. She thought to herself as she followed.

The path led into a large chamber lined with pillars that sank into a lowered pit in the middle. Overhead were vaulted ceilings, pitted from the ravages of time. As Nadia made her way into the chamber, her Tracker’s Instincts warned her of danger before she saw it.

Crawling down the pillars with their bodies inverted were numerous blackened… husks. They resembled humans, but with their skin completely blackened with rot and decay, their fingers and toes so worn that only bone remained.

The husks descended rapidly, swarming towards her in eerie silence.

Fuck.

Taking up a loose boxer’s stance, she raised the heavy gauntlets just in time to meet the first husks as they were on her.

A gut-wrenching crack resounded as Nadia’s left jab crushed a husk’s chest as it leapt at her, followed by an even worse tearing as the pistons on the gauntlet worked, delivering a second impact while the claws tore flesh and skin.

Well that’s gross.

Careful not to upset her balance, she pulled back to a neutral stance once more, using the back of her right gauntlet to block the reaching hands of the husks as they tried to tear at the armour.

Slowly, methodically she delivered controlled punches into the swarming mass as the assault continued, and she was vaguely aware of energy building up within the gauntlets as the husks continued their fruitless assault.

Saturation reached.

Nadia could feel it. The dampening effect of the gauntlets cut off as they reached saturation, and every hit from the husks was just that much heavier. Well… guess I should try it. She thought.

Lunging forward, she opened her right hand gauntlet, pressing its palm hard into the chest of a husk, and driving it into still more before triggering the ability. Impact Transfer.

A shockwave passed through the air around the gauntlet, flowing forward like a surging cannon as it moved through the first husk, then the second, third, fourth…

Behind the shockwave, nothing remained. The husks were reduced to dust as it passed through their bodies, tearing into the horde. In an instant, several husks were replaced with nothing more than motes of whatever particulate remained of what had once been their bodies. It was a scene of absolute destruction.

What…?

Nadia felt a surge as whatever Essence remained in them was syphoned away by Felix, leaving only a few remaining.

Level up: Heavy Battle Suit is now Lv2
+1 Physique

After clearing the rest of the husks, Nadia searched for a sign of the commander’s passing, afraid he might have encountered the risen dead, possibly meeting his end here.

Fortunately, she was able to pick up his trail again on the far side of the chamber and she was relieved to see he found his way through, although she couldn’t help but worry what might have happened if he’d been injured.

Worry about what you can control, Nadia. Don’t get stuck in your head.

With a brief shake, she collected herself and resumed following the path.

~

Nadia encountered more husks as she made her way deeper into the temple, following John’s path, and was becoming more and more disturbed by the place’s atmosphere.

According to both her HUD, she was more than 100m beneath the surface, with no sign of getting any closer to her destination. Up ahead, the trail she was following suddenly turned, entering into a massive chamber that held numerous crystalline cylinders set into the walls at angles, and the ones that were still intact held shifting and murky fluids that gave Nadia a bad feeling without even needing to confirm it with Tracker’s instincts.

She made her way across the massive hall, finding a set of closed doors on the far side, as well as a carved podium with odd runes inscribed on its surface.

Well this is all pretty ominous. Nadia thought to herself. Why would the commander have come here?

As she moved towards the doors beyond the podium, she caught movement from the corner of her vision.

What the…? Nadia spun, raising a gauntlet to try and block, only to find it did… nothing. Seemingly from nowhere, a viscous mass of dark sludge had launched itself at her, trying to smother her armoured form with its relentless assault. Its body resembled dough, but as it coiled around her left arm, she realised that it had considerable power. Try as she might, she couldn’t pull her limbs free.

Shit. She cursed internally as she tried to think her way around the predicament, still struggling to pull herself free. Well, it’s worth a shot. She thought to herself, reading her free arm to punch the mass of sludge.

Please work! She thought, as she swung at the sludge. Impact Transfer.

Despite not having reached the saturation limit, the shockwave unleashed by the strike tore through the sludge, splattering it across the hall while also freeing her body from its grasp.

Yes! She was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she noticed movement nearby. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Throughout the hall, the splattered sludge was collecting, reforming into a large mass once more, and it was clear to Nadia that the Ironclaw Brawlers were not going to cut it.

With a pulse of indigo light, the heavy mechanical gauntlets melted back into her armour, to be replaced by the Wavecaster Armament in its Survival Gauntlet form.

Nadia charged a shot, hopeful that an energy pulse would be more effective than brute force had been.

The sludge, having reconstituted itself moved rapidly, forming spear-like tendrils that it began to launch at Nadia, no longer content to merely constrict her.

Ducking to the side, she dodged the first strike, but the second hit her in the chest, thankfully deflected by the angled armour that made up the Heavy Battle Suit’s breastplate.

Hiss~!

As she fired the Wavecaster at the sludge, the shot produced an angry sizzle where it struck, burning away at clumps of the creature’s body and causing it to flinch, missing its third strike.

Seemingly in a panic, the sludge separated the portion of its bulk that was burning as quickly as it could before shifting to a new position to launch another attack.

Got you now! Nadia fired another shot from the Wavecaster, frustrated with the delay in between each of them as the sludge began shedding more and more of its body with each strike received.

In a move of desperation, the sludge launched what was left of itself at her, latching its entire form onto her battle suit as it sent tendrils to attack whatever seams and joints it could find while Nadia fought to rip the thing off of her.

She charged another shot, raising her arm to point the Wavecaster towards the black sludge covering her, and fired.

~

That was both gross and exhausting. Nadia thought as she sat on the floor in the hall following her battle against the sludge.

Host should retrieve creature’s remains. Great potential.

Felix’s words stole the relief from her body, bringing her back to the thoughts of being smothered by the thing. Looking around the room, she could see a few small masses of wriggling dark sludge that escaped destruction, although they seemed to lack the unity and cohesion they’d had previously.

Maybe its because too much of it got burned away? She thought to herself, rising to collect the various bits of dark sludge.

After collecting the remains, Felix absorbed it all, but surprisingly did not alert her to any new forms being available.

Didn’t get anything new from it, Felix?

One component of several. Great potential.

That tells me nothing, but okay. Nadia thought, making her way to the doors at the back of the hall.

Beyond the doors was a wide spiralling stair leading down deeper within the complex before emerging in a chamber that held a carved metal ring framing a perfectly smooth silver mirror standing upright in its centre.

The ring itself was segmented, with each segment carrying different runes, each intricately carved while the entire piece appeared untouched by time.

Hey, Felix. That thing’s a portal, right? Nadia asked as she stared incredulously at the device.

Host suggestion is likely.

Any way to tell where it leads or how it works? The commander’s trail l leads into it and vanishes.

Uncertain. Recommend investigating the area.

Great. John, if you’re still alive, I swear I’m going to punch you for putting me through this. Nadia thought bitterly as she made her way throughout the room.

Along the outer walls of the room were carvings and reliefs that had long eroded as well as shelves filled with mouldy and decayed remains of pages. After circling the outer wall, Nadia approached the portal more closely, feeling the air around it seem to hum with power.

She moved in closely to inspect the segmented ring framing it, but was cautious not to stand directly in front of it, worried she might accidentally activate it and find herself lost with no way to return.

With a closer inspection of the device, Nadia felt a tug at her Tracker’s Instincts. Inspecting the area, she soon realised that John’s trail wasn’t the only one present, and that the other trail was leaving the device. The sense told her the departure was relatively recent, and if someone had travelled through it once, they might know how to do it again.

Hang in there, John. I’ll find you as soon as I can. She thought to herself as she followed the trail. Instead of going up the stairs, it turned, approaching one of the carvings along the wall, much to her surprise.

Why wouldn’t there be more secret doors hidden in this place, Nadia? She thought to herself as she located the mechanism. Whatever had once been carved in that place, now it was just a bit of eroded rock, and locating the mechanism didn’t take her long.

With the hidden door open, she found herself in a narrow tunnel that seemed endless as it gently curved up and away, feeling hopeful that she was on the right track.

Niraada

Whew! Another chapter done. Don't forget to leave a comment, let me know what you guys think of the story so far. Hope you all enjoy!